Karen Armstrong makes her TED Prize wish: the Charter for CompassionThe Charter for Compassion was imagined by 2008 TED Prize winner, religion scholar Karen Armstrong. (Watch her talk). It was written by the Council of Conscience — a multi-faith, multi-national group made of personalities representing six religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism) with input from thousands of people through an online platform. The Charter is an attempt to define in clear terms the common ground among these religions, the principle they all share: that of Compassion and the “Golden Rule.”

The Charter was unveiled in November 2009 and, with the support of the nonprofit Fetzer Institute, it has been translated into more than 30 languages. The charter is distributed online — and hundreds of events, public readings and discussions have taken place around the Charter with many more planned. Tens of thousands of people have affirmed the charter, and wooden plaques of the text are affixed on many religious buildings around the world. One of these plaques is now at the Vatican.

To many, the word ‘Jihad’ conjures up images of anger, machine guns and Osama bin Laden. But as Bobby Ghosh, editor-at-large of TIME magazine, shares in today’s talk — this actually demonstrates a misappropriation of a word with deep religious significance.

“To the vast majority of practicing Muslims, Jihad is an internal struggle for the faith. It is a struggle within — a struggle against vice, sin, temptation, lust, greed. It is a struggle to try and live a life that is set by the moral code written in the Koran,” says Ghosh. “It is a very powerful word, and there’s a certain almost mystic resonance to it.”

In this talk, given at TEDxGeorgetown, Ghosh shares that — just as Christian families name their daughters Grace — Muslim families often name their daughters Jihad. So why is the global understanding of the word ‘Jihad’ so different?

“There have always been in Islam a small minority who believe that Jihad is not only an internal struggle but an external struggle against forces that would threaten the faith or the faithful,” says Ghosh. “Some of these people believe that in that struggle it is sometimes okay to take up arms.”

As Ghosh shares, bin Laden is the latest to espouse this view and, because of his heinous acts, his extremist definition — to wage a global war of terrorism on the West — has stuck both in the West and in the Muslim world. Quoting an Imam in Tunis who not only named his granddaughter Jihad but also preaches on the true meaning of the word, Ghosh says, “Of bin Laden’s many crimes, this was in his mind one that didn’t get enough attention. He took this word, this beautiful idea — he didn’t so much appropriate it as kidnap it, debase it. He corrupted it and turned it into something it was never meant to be and then persuaded us that it always was.”

To hear why Ghosh believes that bin Laden’s idea of a global holy war is losing, listen to this eye-opening talk. Below, watch five more talks that give subtle understandings of Islam.

Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam
When journalist Mustafa Akyol traveled to Mecca, he made an interesting observation — that men and women prayed together at the Kaaba but were separated in a nearby Burger King. In this talk from TEDxWarwick, Akyol reveals how many things thought to be core to Islam — like the separation of the genders and the wearing of headscarfs for women — are actually long-held local traditions as opposed to religious doctrine.

Lesley Hazleton: On reading the Koran
Lesley Hazleton describes herself as an “accidental theologist.” One day, she decided to sit down and read to Koran. In this talk from TEDxRainier, she shares why it is easy for both Muslim extremists and “Islamaphobes” to take out-of-context Cliffs Notes from the holy book. After studying it in great detail, she shares the insights and complexities found within.

Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf: Lose your ego, find your compassion
The Koran is filled with messages of compassion, says Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf in this talk from TEDSalon 2009. Here, he shares how we must follow the teaching of compassion — and why it is so hard.

Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam
In 2010, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman teamed up with The 99, a band of superheroes who derive their powers from the 99 attributes of Allah. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2010, Al-Mutawa explains why he created these superheroes in his comics — to break stereotypes and reinforce positive images of Islam, minus extremism.

Maajid Nawaz: A global culture to fight extremism
Maajid Nawaz is a former Islamic extremist. In this powerful talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he shares his story of how he joined this cause and how he even became a recruiter at Cambridge University. His insight? That extremist groups are good at communicating across borders. And that those wishing to spread democracy have a lot to learn from them.

If living in Richard Dawkins’ world is to live without an omnipotent creator, to explain life’s most wondrous mysteries with scientific fact, is it also to live in a world devoid of beauty and magic? No, says Dawkins, in his newest book, The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True, which makes its U.S. debut today in print and as an app.

Illustrated by Dave McKean, The Magic of Reality is Dawkins’ first book targeted toward both children and adults, providing scientific answers to many of humankind’s most basic questions: What is reality? What is magic? When and how did everything begin? Are we alone? Why do bad things happen? In this volume Dawkins uses principles of the natural sciences to show children (and remind adults): “The truth is more magical — in the best and most exciting sense of the word — than any myth or made-up mystery or miracle.”

Check out the U.S. hardcover edition or experience the interactive iPad app, filled with animations, experiments and games for children.

Watch Richard Dawkins’ TEDTalks >>

Watch Naif Al-Mutawa’s talk on TED.com, where you can download it, rate it, comment on it and find other talks and performances from our archive of 700+ TEDTalks.

Today, we posted Diane Benscoter’s revealing talk on being a Moonie and how cult thought can lead people to do the unthinkable. It’s a topic that’s not often talked about and that fascinates many, so, to bring you more from Diane the TEDBlog caught up with her for an interview. We talked about her time with the Moonies, her efforts as a deprogrammer and her ideas about how we should be fighting cults and extremism around the world.

Could you speak a little more about how you came to join the Moonies?

I had just turned 17. I was very idealistic. The Vietnam War really bothered me. I had a good friend with a brother in Vietnam. I was determined to find a community that would stop the madness. I went off in search of something like that. I went off on this Walk for World Peace. It was a five day walk, and during the entire walk there would be two people walking with me at all times, talking about this new world they were going to build, saying that I was special and chosen by God to be a part of this, otherwise I wouldn’t be there. There were lectures every night. And slowly I came to believe that they were right, and that Sun Myung Moon was the second coming of the Messiah.

What was it like once you were in the group? What was it like to live as a Moonie?

It was constantly reinforced that we had a purpose that was much higher than that of anyone else in the world. It was pretty appealing to be a part of something like that. But, I missed my freedom. There were times when I really missed being like the people I saw on the street every day. But, it was constantly reinforced that I was saving the world, so I trusted my beliefs and gave up my freedom.

I spent most of my days fundraising — selling candy and flowers. I started in Nebraska and began living in their Nebraska center. I cut my hair off and cut my ties with my family. I was shipped off not long after I joined, for training at a “monastery” in upstate New York. Then I began my mission — fundraising. We lived in vans and went from place to place selling candy and flowers. We also went back for training over and over, and the trainings were pretty long. One of them was 120 days. They reinforced beliefs and erased any doubts during their training. They kept the circular logic intact.

What was this experience like for your family?

They were desperate. You see, it wasn’t like I came from a family that was dysfunctional or abusive. I came from a normal, loving home. My mother was especially desperate to get me out. And when they did talk to me, all I wanted was to get them to join. I thought Satan was using them, was talking through them. They suffered greatly. Now that I’m a parent, I can’t imagine how hard it was for them.

They did everything they could. My mom really wanted to have me deprogrammed, my dad wasn’t as sure. It’s a drastic measure. And what if it didn’t work? He was afraid that if they tried, and it didn’t work, that they might lose me forever.

Could you speak a little bit about deprogramming? You were deprogrammed and became a deprogrammer, but it’s a rather controversial practice and many think that it brings up ethical issues relating to free will.

Yeah, I have a lot to say on this topic, but I’ll try to give the main points first. One — involuntary deprogrammings, which I was involved with, aren’t really taking place anymore and definitely not as they were. Looking back on it, I think there are ethical issues there. Still, I totally understand why people did it, why I did it — desperation, not knowing what to do, love of their child. You’re dealing with a problem that hasn’t been defined psychologically, so you can’t lock people in a mental hospital for it.

Now, I had one foot in and one foot out of the Moonies when I was deprogrammed. My faith was already wavering. Also, I had a loving family. But, to pull a belief system away from someone who doesn’t have the correct support system can be very dangerous. It’s like chemotherapy. Chemotherapy many times cures cancer, but it can also kill people. So, I’m not going to say that deprogramming is the way. And that‘s why I’ve gone in the direction of prevention.

Also, some people came to deprogramming more professionally that others. Some made mistakes and some used really admirable techniques. For the most part, in the ones that I was a part of, we just talked to the person and made sure that they ate and slept well. We were trying to introduce rational thought and a healthy mental state. We presented no new philosophy and no desire for them to take up any of our personal beliefs. We simply tried to explain that much of what they had been told was not true and was possibly brainwashing. We based our techniques on psychological theory, especially the work of Robert Lifton.

READ MORE: Diane talks about how to distinguish a cult from a group, what it feels like to lose your critical thinking and how we can combat extremism — using memes.
What do you think are the identifying traits of a cult? What differentiates cult from group?

The first one is an all or nothing world view. If easy answers to complex questions are handed to you on a silver platter and if you’re asked to believe in them unquestioningly and told not to seek an alternative, that’s a cult. If there’s a clear us and them, and we the insiders have the answers to all the questions about the world — especially if those answers are very simple. For example — Moon is the messiah. I’m a mere mortal so I shouldn’t question anything. Anytime that you feel that you’re inside a group looking out at the rest of the world thinking, “If they only knew what we knew, they’d understand how right we are.”

Also, if the leader is all-knowing. That’s a big one. And of course, the circular logic is the other thing. If everything comes back to this simple logic, if you can’t have rational thought or critical thought, that’s a cult.

What is it like to have this circular thought? What does it feel like for the individual in this logic loop?

Often, I would hear a song, or see a headline, or encounter someone that would bring up issues contradictory to the perspective of the group and it would just bounce off of me, because I knew that that was Satan invading. If it would start to make sense to me, it was Satan invading my thoughts. And this was reinforced by the group that that type of experience was as a result of a lack of faith. We were God’s soldiers and Satan was constantly trying to break down God’s soldiers. I needed to pray harder.

Any critical question — the kind that a scientist would welcome — was not acceptable. In circular logic, anything that questions belief means something evil, bad or Satan. It’s wrong to listen, it’s wrong to even play with ideas that are different. This is how unthinkable things can happen.

So, you stop using critical thought?

Yes. And the thing that takes the place of critical thought is someone else’s voice. That voice literally replaces critical thought.

Could you elaborate on the connection you made in your talk between memetics and combating extremism?

What I theorize is that we’re looking in the wrong place and we’re attacking the extremism in the wrong way at the moment. To try to fight extremism with guns and to simply label extremists as bad or terrible people is wrong. The actions of these extremists are unthinkable, horrific, repulsive, but the person is a person who is passionate and truly believe that they are doing good. A mother who fed poison to her baby in Jonestown is not an evil person. She truly believed she was saving her baby. It’s hard to contemplate, but these are the same motivations that drove Hitler Youth and suicide bombers.

We need to take these phenomena out of the realm of good and evil and into the realm of science. What we really need to do is understand what happens in the brain, and I challenge experts in the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry to do this — perhaps there is some way to identify the extremist brain.

When extremism occurs, something has happened to our mind. The human mind is very susceptible to ideas — to memes. And, much like viruses, memes spread. If we can just define this as a problem, as a memetic infection, as a disease. Ideas can infect our brains, and shut down other pathways of thought.

I suspect that the more a person uses critical thinking, the healthier their brain is. It’s like a computer that is well-tuned and running fast. For some time now, doctors have been recommending to older patients that they do crossword or number puzzles to ward off the onset of senility — suggesting that practicing our thought processes preserves them. Circular logic stops us from using our faculties of critical thinking, and causes our ability for critical and independent thought to atrophy. A lack of critical thought can cause behavior that is dangerous to the person and to others. That person is like a machine that’s broken — they’re simply not functioning normally.

I think that this particularly dangerous state called extremism can be prevented. I realized that when I found memetics. For me, finding memetics was like water to a thirsty person. It was only theory that was able to explain what happened to my brain and how it could be prevented in others. This circular logic I was caught in was a malfunction — if that meme caught on and people started speaking out against circular logic, perhaps the incidence of that malfunction could be reduced. We have memes about which sandal is fashionable for which season, why not a meme against circular logic?